


Prove Nothing

by lmontyy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Coming Out, Ellie - Freeform, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Humor, Joel - Freeform, Lesbian Character, Maria - Freeform, TLOU, The Last of Us - Freeform, Tommy - Freeform, Useless Lesbians, and sappy, and telling them all about dina, bc that is really cute, dina - Freeform, dina and ellie, dina x ellie, ellie and dina, ellie really is a stinky sap, ellie williams, ellie x dina, hes cute his names jimmy, the last of us part 2 - Freeform, the last of us part ii, the last of us part two, this is literally just a cute fic of ellie coming out to her family, this whole thing is cute, tlou 2, tlou part 2, tommy has a baby boy too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmontyy/pseuds/lmontyy
Summary: Even after all the years she spent with Joel and with Tommy and Maria in Jackson, she never found it in herself to gain the courage to formally come out to her family. With a little push from Dina, she finally brings herself to tell them each just what her secret is, and just how much she loves Dina, and how much she has for so long.
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 186





	Prove Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by the song "No Judgement" by Niall Horan!  
> This fic is just really fluffy and Ellie just has such a damn good family... it makes me soft

“You know you’re gonna have to tell them eventually, right?”

The voice Ellie usually cherished hearing every morning only reminded her of the harsh reality she was faced with – that same reality faced by many kids, teens, and adults since the pre-outbreak and thereafter. Her words were like a cold splash in the face, or the chilliest Jackson wind materializing and blowing against her cheeks. She couldn’t decide which one was more fitting for the feeling of dread that shot like electricity down her nerves.

“Yeah, I know,” Ellie whispered back, taking another forkful of eggs into her mouth, resting her face on her fist that sat upright, elbow pressed to the wood table.

Dina gave her a sympathetic look as she swallowed her bite. “I know you’re nervous, babe, but procrastinating literally just makes it harder.”

Ellie knew she was right ­– wholeheartedly, she knew how much Dina felt for her and how much she wished she could help her. Since the start of their relationship in the beginning of the year, Dina had remained a secret, hidden in plain sight. Despite Ellie’s family being completely clueless to their relationship, all of their friends knew what happened behind closed doors in their residence. And for the longest time, Dina had tried desperately to usher her into the idea of coming out to her family.

“What did your parents say when you told them?” Ellie searched for a comforting answer in murky eyes from a seat across the table.

“You mean, before they left?” Dina said with an amused scoff in an insufficient attempt to lighten the mood. “When I told them, they said that although they didn’t fully agree with it, they’d let me be whoever the hell I wanted to be, and fuck whoever I wanna fuck.” When Ellie shot her a wide-eyed, perplexed stare, Dina’s smile broke and a chuckle escaped. “Okay, no, they didn’t say that last part. But they did tell me it was my life, and they weren’t gonna tell me who I could and couldn’t date at seventeen.”

Ellie’s eyes fell to the cracks and crevices in the wood table in front of her. Doubt and disdain riddled her face, prompting a small hand from the girl beside her to reach out and take her vacant one.

“Let me tell you something,” Dina assured, her voice firmer but completely covered by a blanket of care for the taller girl. “I’ve never seen anyone love anything more than Joel loves you, okay? That man wouldn’t trade you up for anything.” Memories from the grim car ride to Jackson after leaving Salt Lake City flashed through her mind at Dina’s words. “There’s nothing you could tell that guy that would make him not talk to you, or hate you, or be disgusted at you. You, quite literally, could shoot three people in the head in front of him, and he wouldn’t even flinch. He’d probably high-five you.”

There was a lightheartedness in her tone that watered the small grin that grew on Ellie’s face. She wasn’t wrong, that much was for sure.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Dina secured again, leaning over, straining herself, but managing a sweet kiss that buzzed against Ellie’s skin, the blood rushing to her cheeks at the smallest little displays of affection from her girlfriend.

Doubt surged her again. “What about Tommy and Maria?”

Dina scoffed with amusement. “Tommy and Maria probably love you more than Joel does,” she joked, the kindness laced in her voice. “Maria is like your best friend. Mine, too, but more yours.” She poked playfully.

It was true – after they arrived at Jackson for a second time following their adventure, Maria took a very quick liking to Ellie. As she grew up, Maria definitely became the woman figure in her life. She relied on her aunt for just about everything – emotions, hardships, and everything in between. In fact, when Ellie had her crush on Dina prior to their relationship, Maria was the only person she turned to. Despite her constant pressuring for Ellie to tell her the name of the person she liked, she always gave her tips based off of the encounters they had. Whenever Dina would drop hints at her – as she loved to do pre-relationship – she would repeat the interaction word-for-word to Maria, asking what she thought, how she should feel, and what she should do next. Maria never failed to let her down with advice, never asking any more questions beyond her teasing and playfully trying to convince Ellie to tell her.

“Yeah,” a sweet smile plastered across Ellie’s face at the emerging memories from those times. “She is.”

“Then what the hell are you worrying for?” Her girlfriend threw her arms up and let them fall to accentuate her point. “Everything’s going to be perfectly fine, love.”

Ellie always melted at her loving pet names. Reassurance washed over her like a wave, but in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help the doubt and anxiety she felt nagging at the tail-end of her brain. She did her best to swallow it, though, as she knew worrying was fruitless and unhelpful.

“Are you gonna do it today?”

Dina’s sudden question had her mind reeling into thought. _Should I?_

“I don’t know,” Ellie shrugged with a sigh, the previous smile dissipating from her face. “I feel like it’s a bad idea.”

“Oh, stop,” Dina rolled her eyes and stood. In a swift motion, she pulled Ellie’s chair out and threw a leg over her thighs, sitting gracefully in her lap and burying thin fingers in an auburn sea of hair. “Look at me.” Ellie avoided making eye contact with dark pools for a plethora of reasons. With a firm nudge of her head in the direction of Dina’s eyes, finally she gave up resisting and turned to meet her forest green eyes into Dina’s dark brown ones. “You are fucking impossible.” She choked back a laugh before pressing her sweet lips to Ellie’s.

The warmth that came from kissing Dina was always beyond comforting to Ellie. It was immediate reassurance – a feeling that swept over her and made her feel as if she could do anything. The kiss didn’t last long, as Dina broke away with a novel of words on her mind, written behind dark eyes that Ellie could read so easily.

“You, my love, need to stop worrying,” Dina’s eyes focused in on the length of hair that always hung down in the way of her perfect, freckled face. With the gentleness of a feather, Dina’s fingers captured it and softly tucked it behind her ear, her eyes never leaving the movement as Ellie watched her face with adoration. “You’re overthinking this, I swear. Trust me, if my parents were okay with it, Joel, Tommy, and Maria will be more than okay with it.” Her eyes found their way back to Ellie’s, hopping over each freckle and scar written in the pores across her face until they met back to the familiar green. “No matter what, Joel will always love you, and so will Tommy, and so will Maria.” Her voice was soft, slow, and reassuring.

Pursing her lips, Ellie furrowed her eyebrows in order to fight off the doubt that threatened to come flying back. Looking up at her with an innocent, trusting look, she sighed gently with hope.

“Okay,” she whispered, before Dina leaned in once more to find her lips again.

***

The rapping of her fist against the door had her mind reeling back to reality.

Out of the three people she considered her family, Ellie’s mind immediately jumped to telling Maria first. Once Dina set off for her overnight shift at six at night, Ellie quickly made her way over to Tommy and Maria’s, where she knew the house would be all but vacant, save for the woman in question.

Maria was always Ellie’s safe space for things like these.

Her nerves set aflame when the lock clicked from the other side of the door and swung open with a creak from the old door.

“Ellie?” Maria’s inquisitive but warm and welcoming look numbed her anxieties for nearly half a second before the thought of losing her to her secret purged her and annihilated that ease not a moment later. “This is a weird time for an Ellie visit.” Her chuckle echoed in her mind. It was true – she never visited this early. She was always too busy. “Come on in.”

Stepping aside to let her adopted niece in, holding the door and letting her into the home she shared with Tommy, the warm aroma hit her in the face like a gust in the summer. It smelled of pine and lavender; it filled her senses and sparked a familiar flame within her. The fire that crackled in the fireplace as she walked in further slipped her into comfort. But it wasn’t until Jimmy came into view that Ellie was fully eased.

Jimmy was a blonde, fair-skinned boy with freckles much like Ellie’s. It had been nearly two years since Maria and Tommy welcomed him into the world, and into their community. Ellie had never seen a soft spot in Joel like he had for his nephew. Admittedly, even she had a soft spot for the boy, despite being terribly annoyed by most children for their incompetency and dependency on everyone else. Though, she knew, it was just in their nature. But her usual stigmas faded whenever Jimmy was anywhere near her. She loved her baby cousin more than anything.

“Hey, big boy,” Maria soothed when Jimmy fussed, toy in hand and face scrunched with frustration. “Take it easy. Ellie?” She turned to her suddenly with a tenderness in her face that Ellie couldn’t name – it was so fragile. “Would you mind watching him for a minute while I get you a drink?”

“Of course,” she smiled sweetly before sitting down with her legs crisscrossed beside the little boy on the floor. He watched her curiously with big, blue eyes when the tall girl came to eye-level with him.

“Why did I even bother asking?” Maria mused, disappearing into the kitchen with a wondrous smile. “I already knew that was the first place you were goin’.”

When Ellie took her index finger and bumped his little nose, he giggled and peace flooded over Ellie’s mind. With Maria out of sight for a few moments, Ellie was finally put at ease for a moment, faced with the baby smiling with his tiny, half-grown teeth. The anxiety running rampant through her body came to a direct halt as the giggling of the baby boy beside her filled her ears and tranquilized her nerves. And when Ellie smiled at him, it only prompted him to smile wider back.

But when Maria emerged from the doorway leading to the kitchen, all of the anxiety swept her once more.

She came in with two tall glasses of ginger ale and two coasters shoved under her armpit. Setting the glasses down and placing the coasters over glass, she sat down gently on the couch, inviting Ellie to do the same. Picking up Jimmy and placing him in her lap as she sat, she faced Maria with a smile before resorting to bouncing the boy on her strong legs to keep him quiet.

“So, I reckon you want to talk about something?” Maria’s inherited accent was shining through and it reminded Ellie too much of her father and uncle. She couldn’t figure out if it comforted her or just made the nervousness worse. It was hard enough seeing pictures of their family everywhere.

“Is that what you think?” Ellie joked in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood, to ease the panic eating her alive from the inside out.

“Any time you come hear all quiet like this?” An eyebrow shot up onto her forehead. “I know something’s up. Spill the beans, Williams.”

Maria made it so hard to say no. Silence consumed her.

Words came up the back of her throat in stutters and broken sentences, leaving painful burns and lacerations in their wake, making it painful to hold back. But her nerves were stronger than anything hurting her.

Luckily for her, Maria was quick to pick up on Ellie. “What’s it got to do with?” She asked with a tilt of her head. “This partner of yours, right?” A small grin formed on Maria’s face, prompting a breathy, clearly nervous chuckle out of Ellie. “What? Have you finally given in? Are you gonna tell me who this stranger is?”

Her direct attempt to clear the air laced in her amusement and playful nature had Ellie reeling with gratitude. She found herself chuckling alongside her aunt, the pain soothed for just a moment.

“No,” Ellie shook her head before rethinking her answer. “Well, partially. Not directly.”

An inquisitive look fell upon her fair features. “This is about Dina, isn’t it?”

All of the blood left her veins in that instant. “W-What about her?” The words forced themselves out of the back of her throat immediately after. The sweat that pooled at the pores of her forehead spoke volumes.

“Aha,” Maria gave her a deviously triumphant look. “So, I guessed correctly.”

The anvil that pushed down on her chest still felt heavy with doubt and surprise. “What do you mean?”

“You think I couldn’t tell, Ellie?” Maria laughed gently. “You live with her. I’ve seen how you two act, you know. You might as well be just as married as Tommy and I. You both act the exact same.”

“I…” Ellie couldn’t bring herself to speak; she was appalled. “You find nothing wrong with it?” Ellie asked in disbelief as her shock subsided.

“Why would I?” Her face turned to confusion and what seemed like insult. “You really thought I’d be upset that you’re with her? You know how much I love her.”

Maria and Dina had been borderline best friends since Dina’s family came to Jackson when Dina was very little. Maria clicked with her parents and frequently visited their family, subsequently forming a close bond between Maria and Dina, even after her parents fled back to Denver, Colorado, where they came from originally.

“Yeah, but…”

“No buts,” Maria cut her off immediately. “No matter who you’re with, it’ll never make a difference to me how I see you.” Her tone softened and she reached out a gentle, fair hand and placed it above Ellie’s larger one. “I don’t think I’d rather you be with anyone else than Dina. I think she’s perfect for you.”

There was no word for the amount of shock that washed over Ellie. The emotions that threatened to release from the back of her eyes became painful, but she slipped them back. The back of her throat choked up with words, but none pushed far enough to be heard aloud.

“You’re just kissing Dina’s ass,” Ellie’s voice broke gently, but there was no doubt of the sense of amusement.

“Ah, you got me,” Maria threw her hands up, returning the play. “You do know I love that girl.”

Ellie released a shaky chuckle, a release of her amusement and her nervousness all escaping from the tightness of her throat, relief washing over her and the air suddenly became as light as the small boy bustling in her lap.

“How long have you two been together?” Maria inquired, a sweetness in her voice that lightened the atmosphere and turned Ellie’s nerves to feathers.

With a bright smile, Ellie laughed. “Ah, about five months?”

“You lost count already, Williams?”

“Maybe,” Ellie shrugged with a cheeky smile, planting a kiss onto the blonde head on her lap. “No, but when we moved in together in January, we started dating right after. Dina needed a housemate and she put me on the spot about it and here we are.”

“Oh, of course,” Maria shook her head with a gentle, knowing smile. “Sounds about right for Miss Dina.”

“Does it?”

Their laughs faded comfortably into the air around them, the comfortable ambience of the lit house and the familiar atmosphere swamping them both. When it finally settled, the tone switched back to that genuine seriousness and casual respect that it retained earlier.

“Let me tell you something, Ellie,” The older woman sighed with understanding. “I’m a girl born right out of the west end of Tennessee, before this whole outbreak happened. I’ve seen the kind of terrible shit folks did to people who were just trying to be themselves, like you being with Dina. I know how rough and judgmental and terrible people can really be. I don’t know how folks around here act – they don’t seem like the kind of folks to be so harsh.” A soft hand landed atop the top of her hair. “And even if they do give you a hard time or get on you for it, don’t sweat it. Just come find me and I’ll be glad to knock some sense into them.”

Another chuckle escaped from her throat, all of the pressure releasing and the heaviness on her chest lifted and shattered. “Okay, I will.”

“You better,” Maria got to her feet, and with another hit of surprise, she leaned down and pressed a loving kiss to a marked forehead. “Now, what can I get you to eat?”

***

There were very few places Ellie could recall where she could find Tommy when he wasn’t in his office or managing the gates and patrols. He was a busy man – he and Maria shared joint custody of the work, but since Jimmy’s birth, her duties were far more domestic.

Where Maria was the brains, Tommy was the brawn, usually out on the front line working with his patrolling officers, patrolmen, gatekeepers, stablehands, and everyone who liked to get their hands dirty. Maria dealt more with the homeland security, the medics, and the community planning while she was at home with Jimmy, but Ellie eagerly anticipated her return to holding down the reigns with Tommy.

When Ellie climbed the stairs of the warehouse building to find Tommy in his office, she was met with darkness and a vacant desk, the metallic room only lit by the snowy-gray tint of the open factory windows, the sun disappearing far enough that the strains of color and echoing blues in the sky being the only means of light that danced on the world around them.

She sighed into the darkness, the cool spring air radiating through the office at the slightly cracked open windows that he’d left open before exiting, still letting the blooming breeze run its course through the room. Slowly and carefully, she turned out of the office with the door gently closing behind her. Pressing her back to the door, she looked up to the ceiling and sighed with strain.

Her conversation with Maria still rung in her head, easing her fragile mind and calming her anxieties to only as much as they could. She ascended back down the stairs with her heart in her hand, only to accidentally shoulder-bump into one of Tommy’s second-hands blocking the door.

A tall, dark-skinned man she immediately recognized to be twenty-two-year-old Russ, one of Jesse’s close friends, turning at Ellie’s soft “excuse me” with a look of surprise that molded into a soft smile.

“Williams!” His heartwarming complexion set her burning nerves to a chill, a smile of relief crossing her face. “You lookin’ for Tommy?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “You have any idea where he is?” She brought up a hand to her face to itch it awkwardly, the anxieties biting at the back of her mind and making her heart race.

Throwing a point over his shoulder, he answered cheerfully. “Down at the armory, last time I checked. He and a couple others were filling mags.”

With a heavy step forward, she wished her friend a quick, sweet thanks before taking off, her nervousness bouncing off the edges of her body and radiating through her, fueling that first step she took, and then the next, only growing faster as she neared the armory. Her mind was swamped in bad outcomes – what if he and Joel were alike and they both resented her? Maria had been so understanding, but no amount of understanding could ever shake the fear she felt when her arm numbly reached out, fingers taking the doorknob into her palm, and turning the door open with a squeak.

In the dimly lit large factory-like room padded with boards and shelves filled to the brims with ammo, holsters, guns, boxes, magazines and more. On one of the stools and propped up on one of the tables, Tommy sat loading up a pistol magazine, empty and full boxes of ammunition next to empty mags to his right, and full, completed magazines piled up to his left. He didn’t even initially hear her come in until he turned just enough to doubletake and make eye contact with her.

“Oh, hey, Ellie!” He seemed delighted to see her, engulfed in the silence for long enough, from what it seemed like. “Good to see you, kiddo. How are you?” He kicked the stool out from underneath his feet where had them resting, landing it right beside him at the table. “Take a seat.”

The peak of her anxiety reached her in that moment – sweat began to soak her back and her fingers twitched with unease in her palm as she forced herself to step closer and just sit. Dina’s words of pressure and reassurance echoed in her head as her bottom hit the seat, and she was met face-to-face with her loving adopted uncle, who passed her an empty mag and a box of ammo just as she sat down.

“You mind helping me fill these up? Those scallywags abandoned me here,” he joked, the edges of his lips crooking upward into a deceptive grin.

Ellie took the empty mag into her hand with a similar smirk to retaliate his. “Did they abandon you or did you tell them to go home out of the gracious of your heart and now you’re stuck doing all their work?” She knew him all too well.

“You’re playin’ with fire, kid.”

A comfortable chuckle passed among them as silence fell over them, the tension radiating from Ellie’s freckled skin, so much so that Tommy picked up on it right away. He tilted his head inquisitively, not taking keen eyes off the bullets as he pushed them in one by one into the magazine.

“You doin’ alright?” His voice was pressing and understanding, in that sweet way as it always was.

With a sigh, she started loading the first few bullets into the mag, her eyes glued to each golden bud that could kill someone in an instant, processing the danger of them every time before when she was assigned to that job. “Yeah, I’m hanging in there.”

“You seem off,” Tommy mused. “I reckon it has somethin’ to do with your old man?”

Ellie scoffed with amusement. “You’d probably be right on any other occasion. But, no, not this time.”

“Hey, if this is some kinda girl talk…” Ellie couldn’t distinguish if he was joking or if he was serious. “I’m gonna have to redirect you to my lovely wife. I don’t have much experience with this stuff, you know.”

A flush fell on Ellie’s face, but she couldn’t contain the smile that formed or the sweet laugh that erupted from the back of her throat, which was tightened once again, much like earlier. “No, Tommy, this isn’t a girl talk.”

“Oh, thank the Lord,” he nudged her gently with his elbow playfully, still focused on loading his magazine. “Alright, then, now that _that’s_ outta the way, hit me. What’s goin’ on?”

The desperate cling to silence struck Ellie again. That terrible hesitation that glued her and the horrible outcomes and doubts that plagued her mind infecting her with fear and keeping her words at bay, stuck painfully to the back of her throat like a cold block of ice.

“Well…” she started, the aching in her voice present, the shakiness of her words prompting a momentary halt from Tommy as he looked at her with curiosity. “I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff lately…” _This is going terribly,_ she thought, hopeless to her own thoughts and a slave to her anxious mind.

“Uh oh,” Tommy’s simple little joke broke through the tension for a moment, relieving Ellie of her pain and sending her reeling back, reminded of all the wonderful memories with her adopted uncle – his loving, caring nature, his devotion and the way her loved her – and part of her was blissfully reassured as she recalled his amazing ability of understanding that she’d seen in every community gathering and every worker meeting. She could feel the apprehension slipping away in that moment as she eased her ravenous thoughts into coherent sentences.

“I’ve been really nervous to talk about this,” she admitted, never looking away from the magazine in her hand, even after she stopped loading it. “I haven’t even really told Joel about it yet, as much as I wanted to.”

That shift from playfulness and Tommy’s goofy nature to a serious and compassionate one was palpable when Tommy stopped what he was doing to turn slightly on his stool to meet his eyes to Ellie’s face as she looked down at the magazine in her hand with dismay. His full attention was on her, and while she knew that should’ve terrified her, it was comforting to feel his kind eyes watching her with rapt consideration and a willingness to listen to her and nothing else so familiar and consoling. His warm eyes helped melt her anxieties away, and she didn’t even have to meet them with her own to know it.

“I know that… in the past, before the outbreak, it was always frowned upon,” Ellie stumbled out, trying to be as easy and docile as physically possible. “It was never something to be proud of… but I just can’t… help it?” She’d never found herself struggling for words ever in her life before that moment.

“How do you mean, El?” His voice was thick with tenderness and solicitude.

“Well…” She shifted the magazine in her lap, eyes still looking down into it, as if that was her only safety – not meeting his eyes, because she knew that meeting his eyes and _looking at him_ while the truth came out would only destroy every reasonable thought in her mind, and launch her back into a panicked, jumbled mess. She just swallowed hard and continued anyway. “I noticed it when I was a little girl. I never thought anything of it, really. Because it never seemed important, the people that I noticed. But I realized that… very few people are like that. And I realized that I was kind of an outlier. Not many girls notice other girls the way I do.”

Hearing herself admitting her sexuality in front of her uncle, and realizing the truth was out and it had passed from her own mouth made her heart race. Tommy’s eyes averted to the floor as she continued, the realization sinking in with him.

“It wasn’t hard to realize, it was just hard to accept, you know, that I’m… different,” she shrugged softly.

A quick correction from the man beside her cut her off. “You ain’t different Ellie. You ain’t much different than me, or than your friends, or even Joel. You think that makes you different?”

She finally mustered the courage to give an emotional look in his direction, silenced by his surprising and unreadable response. His eyes were heavy with understanding and warmth.

“You ain’t different Ellie,” he repeated, with more finality and geniality in his voice. A small, merciful smile creeping up the edges of his lips. “I can’t believe you kept it in for that long. There wasn’t no reason for you to. You think I wouldn’t understand? Or Maria?”

“No, it wasn’t that,” Ellie assured. “I was just… afraid that maybe the whole… reality of it, and how it used to be seen, would’ve stuck with you guys or something. I didn’t know you back then.”

“No, I get it,” he tried to put her at ease. “Believe me, I do. Let me promise you, it has no effect on me. There ain’t nothing you could do that would ever make me treat ya like they treated y’all back then.”

She felt her heart swell in her chest, matching the pressure building behind her eyes. “People were just… so disgusted by it. It wasn’t taken well by a lot of people from everywhere. I was afraid that I’d meet that same kind of… negativity.” Her words flooded out, the comfort and unfailing response she received from her uncle prompting her to reveal everything that built up in the back of her throat.

“Let me ease your mind there, Ellie,” he chuckled softly. “The folks round here, they ain’t like them people that lived before the shit hit the fan. They ain’t gonna holler at ya and make you feel bad. These are good people here. And every one of ‘em adores you.”

Tears threatened to push past her eyes at his gentle words. “Is that so?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he assured with a smile, before returning to his sweet and compassionate gaze, the seriousness returning in his voice underneath the layers of understanding. “You’re in good shape. And listen, kid. If any of these folks give you a hard time, you always know that Maria and I are a short walk away. Don’t let nobody keep you from bein’ yourself, you understand me? If they wanna talk, let ‘em talk. That ain’t a reflection of you.” A strong hand touched down on her broad shoulder. “Don’t let anyone bring you down, you hear me?”

Silence all but escaped passed her lips. That time, only an overwhelmed, emotional smile took the place of the thousands of uncanny, unfiltered, fuddled words. “Thank you,” her eyes glowed, a caring intensity matching his, nothing but gratitude shown onto him.

That comforting silence engulfed her and her uncle then. Both parties focused their attention back on their magazines, starting to pile more ammunition into them once again. Finally, a groan of exhaustion from Tommy beside her broke through the quietness.

“Well, kid, it’s gettin’ late, ain’t it?” Taking a gaze at the small window that had been pushed out, the open glass revealed the dimness from the outside, the yellow, orange, and purple colors that painted the sky no more than twenty minutes beforehand completely vanished into darkness. “I reckon your old man is gonna want you home.”

“Oh, I, uh,” Ellie chuckled nervously. “I don’t live with Joel anymo–”

“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Tommy remembered then. “You’re livin’ with Dina, aren’t you?”

“Yeah…” Her anxious stare into the magazine prompting Tommy to watch her with wondrous, inquisitive eyes.

“Dina, huh?”

Ellie turned slightly to meet knowing eyes and a grin. “Yeah,” she scoffed out a chuckle. “Dina.”

His brows furrowed and his eyes averted to the table, a moment of thought passing through his mind, solidified with a curt nod of amusement. “I see.” When Ellie slid off the stool, placing the magazine down on the table next to him, he stopped and turned to her, cueing her to turn and look to him. “Take care of her, kid.”

Wide eyes watched him with wonder, a small grin tugging at the corners of her lips. With a whisper, her heart broke. “I will.”

***

It was a painfully long wait at Joel’s house before he came back from his patrol. Ellie had made herself perfectly comfortable on the long green couch, outstretched with a blanket hugging her thin shape. The TV buzzed in the background, but she could hardly bring herself to pay attention. Her mind wandered in swamps of thought – trucking through the mud of anxiety she felt as each second ticked by that she waited for Joel.

In her mind, she planned out a tree of scenarios, responses, and ways to break it to him. She knew, realistically, they would never play out that way. She could’ve planned for every single possible outcome, and reality would always be the _one_ singular one that she missed.

When she heard the clicking of the lock from the outside as Joel’s key found its way into the lock and turned it, she felt all of the blood drain from her body. It felt as if Joel had taken a hammer and smashed her in the chest with it from behind her. Breathing became a sport when she heard the hard boots step firmly on the wood floor.

“Ellie?” Joel’s voice was light with surprise. “I wasn’t expectin’ you to be here. Shit, I didn’t even make anything–”

Ellie cut him off with a nervous laugh. It was more exhaled air than a laugh. “It’s all good, Joel. Thanks, though.”

Slipping his shoes off and tossing them by the door, he insisted. “No, seriously, kiddo, lemme grab you a little something to eat.”

She smiled and shook her head with amusement. “No, Joel, it’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” He frowned, his paternal instinct kicking in and causing Ellie to smile internally and roll her eyes.

“Yeah,” she assured, a finality in her tone that finally convinced him.

Joel gave in, and started for her on the couch, setting his bag on the table against the wall and removing his flannel, tossing it atop of the bag and revealing a gray t-shirt that was marked down and stained with sweat, tucked carefully under his jeans and belt. It seemed to take him a minute to remember that coming home to Ellie and seeing his beloved adopted daughter there to greet him and hungrily wait for his presence in the kitchen wasn’t the normal anymore.

“What brings you here, by the way?” He asked, an amused tone in his stoic and emotionless voice. “Anything in particular?”

“I guess so,” she said reluctantly, her voice dragging slightly, which seemed to quickly get Joel’s attention. A tilt of his head in response had her answering him. “I’ve been thinking a lot… about stuff that maybe I should’ve talked about a while ago…”

The seriousness in his tone prompted Joel for what seemed like would be a long talk, and he hastily made his way over to the armchair that was facing inward, toward the couch, which he turned a little to make ends meet so that he was almost completely facing her. His back was hunched forward and his arms sat in his lap as he focused his full attention on the needs of his Ellie.

With the anxiety that completely overran her body, she felt like she was his little teenage girl again, running back to him with complaints every time she felt even the slightest bit of anxiety or anger.

“I’ve just been… really afraid to talk about this. I don’t really even know why,” her confessions had been pouring out a tiny bit easier than earlier, but being faced with the real man that mattered – her own adopted father – she was rendered back into that same girl from years ago that shyly hid her feelings, never spoke unless provoked, her snarky attitude calmed and sedated following the months after a traumatic winter. She felt helpless again. “I talked it out with Tommy and Maria, and… truthfully, I feel a lot better. I just… I’m so afraid what everyone will think, or how everyone will respond. I’ve kept it hidden for so long, and I… I know that it wasn’t exactly praised before the outbreak… but I can’t help it, and I never knew how to talk about it… and I just–”

“Ellie.”

Joel’s deep, unfazed voice cut her off then, as her mind slipped more and more into a jumbled mess and her words became faster and harder to sort. Ellie had been previously staring at the ground, making sense of the stitches and patterns in the carpet lining as in hopes that it would shield her from the intense watch of Joel’s dark eyes burning into her skin, blending in the ashes with the marks and freckles littered across her face. But then, she found her eyes traveling up and up without any control, and finally, they were staring at a tense face that stared deep into the ground, much like she had been.

“You don’t have to make this harder than it is,” a breathy, curt laugh released as he looked up to meet her with sympathetic and compassionate eyes – eyes so similar to Tommy’s that it caught her off guard. “You don’t have to worry your head off. It’s okay. Just take your time and tell me what it is that you have to say.”

_He knows._

Realization sprouted throughout her face like branches off a young, growing sapling, and it was clear that Joel picked up on it right away, because the smile that grew in return took the breath from her lungs and washed it away.

“I, uh…” Even upon realizing how much he knew, the words were still hard to push out. In fact, they seemed even harder to form despite knowing. “I just…” She had to look away.

Finally, with the biggest gulp she’d ever taken in her life, she just forced it out painfully, eyes launching up to bury in his.

“Joel, I’m gay.”

There was no change of expression in his face. That same warm smile, his eyebrows arched up and eyes teaming with care and enlightenment. There was a dam that seemed to break behind those kind eyes that usually were icy with frost. It was as if a buildup of years of waiting for the truth finally came undone – like there was a sweet release of a fresh drag of a cigarette, smoke weaving through the air and fading away. It seemed like he was waiting for more; eager to hear more, like her confession wasn’t enough glorious clarity for all the time he had been waiting for her to feel secure enough to tell him.

“I noticed it even before we met,” she continued, a wave of relief and the need to spill her heart out overpowering her. “I noticed it with a girl that I met when I was fourteen. I noticed it with her, with Kat… you remember her, right?” A silent nod and a failure to lose his expression had her back on track. “And then, I noticed it again with Dina.”

“Dina was the culprit this time, huh?” His first words were laced with nothing but amused understanding. “She stole your old heart?”

Ellie scoffed, a laugh escaping at the same time. “Yeah, turns out her attitude was more charming than I remember.”

“Oh, well, that’ll do it to ya,” he handed it right back to her, prompting laughs from the back of both of their throats before they finally landed back on the rails.

“Yeah…” Ellie continued, but not before releasing a long sigh of obvious relief as the weight was lifted off her chest for the third and final time. “I told Maria, and then I told Tommy. Now I’m here with you.”

“You mean to tell me you told my bastard little brother before you told your old man?” Joel leaned forward in disbelief, arms on the rests of the chair and an eyebrow perched so high on a worn forehead that the sight was nothing but amusing.

“Hey,” she threw her hands up with feigned innocence. “Crazy uncle before your dad, right?”

“I’ll make sure to tell him that philosophy.”

Laughter rose from the back of her once strangled throat, the comfort in the air and the positive response from Joel completely hijacking her senses, her emotions getting the best of her and finally the pressure building behind her eyes reached a peak, and the tears came pouring out from her lids at the overwhelming feelings that surged her. The truth was finally out, and it went off without a hitch. She couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

Joel broke the silence then. “For your information, I suspected it the most when you were so quick to pack your bags and move out with Dina. The reason I didn’t even bother to stop you was because I knew y’all was up to somethin’ that I knew I _definitely did not_ want to get in the middle of.” He admitted; a smile still plagued on his usually cold face. “Truth be told, your girlfriend kinda scares me.”

_Your wife kinda scares me._

That same little remark that he’d made to show Tommy how he accepted Maria ­­– how he valued Maria as his partner, despite his joking attitude. It broke her heart into every piece it could possibly be shattered into.

“I don’t mind that,” Ellie shot back with a playful grin. “We’re on the same page, then, because she scares me, too.”

“Good,” Joel stood with a heave. “You need someone to put your damn head on straight.”

“And you don’t?”

Joel walked to the entrance to the kitchen, placed a hand on the doorframe, and gently turned to face her. She had her body facing toward the armchair, her head peeking over the side of the couch and watching him walk. With the most genuine and breathtaking smile, he scoffed with amusement, air pushing out his nose, and his eyes averting down and up again.

“Maybe that girl can whip us _both_ into shape.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really sorry for the delay on this fic.   
> With all of this virus stuff, I was the only one working in my entire family, as my parents lost their jobs temporarily to all of the lockdowns and the chaos. This week, I lost my job, too, and as you can imagine, it's been rough to get my footing back, especially now that we're facing these financial troubles. I've also been up to my head in schoolwork online, as well as trying to balance out spending time with my family and over the phone with my friends during this difficult time.   
> Sometimes, in such rough, unfathomable conditions, motivation is few and far between. I'm sending every single one of my readers and my lovely following a prayer for a healthy and safe present and future. I wish every one of you the best during this tragic time, and I send my condolences and my well wishes to anyone who is facing the reality of this illness in themselves or in their family.   
> Right now, we need any hope or relief we can get. I hope this piece brings some of you peace of mind. There is still positivity everywhere you look, even now. I'm glad I got a wholesome topic to write about during this unfortunate time!  
> Once again, I sincerely hope that every single one of you is staying safe in their homes and huddled up with their families – always hold them close in a time like this. Hold your heads high! We'll get through this! Nothing but the best and healthiest to all of you.   
> Stay safe out there, my friends!


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